"Top Chef: Seattle" contestant Kristen Kish. / Matthias Clamer/Bravo

Javier Bardem is always a welcome blast of wow. As in, wow, that actor certainly lights up the screen anytime he's in a movie. Also wow-worthy are moody singer Aimee Mann, perceptive comedian Kathleen Madigan, the food-tastic series "Top Chef" and the classic movie "Breathless" -- and that's quite enough for a wowie-wow-wow look at what's on the horizon and who's having a moment.

"Top Chef: Seattle": The soothing rhythm of a "Top Chef" season goes like this: Meet the contestants, find the humble artisan to root for, then find the egotistical bully to root against. Like a morality play, the Bravo competition for up-and-coming chefs tends to reward those who are actually best in the kitchen, not those loudest at singing their own praises. This installment, debuting at 10 p.m. Wednesday, takes the contestants to the Space Needle city to be judged by Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Emeril Lagasse, Hugh Acheson and new addition Wolfgang Puck, with the lovely, haughty Padma Lakshmi presiding as usual. Bonus: There's a cheftestant with Michigan ties: Kristen Kish, 28, whose hometown is Kentwood, near Grand Rapids.

Aimee Mann: The former 'Til Tuesday singer performs Saturday at the Royal Oak Music Theatre with her special blend of tough-fragile tunes sung in a light, sweet voice of lingering sadness. For her signature sound, check out "Save Me" from the "Magnolia" soundtrack and soak up its sullen plea of escape from heartbreak. Like her husband, Michael Penn, Mann is a dedicated artist who's more interested in being true to herself than building a standard pop hit. Her latest album, "Charmer," features the peppy title song, an anthem directed at slick talkers with hollow cores everywhere.

Javier Bardem: The 43-year-old Spanish actor steals scenes so effortlessly, his costars hardly know they've been robbed. Starting Friday, he will be going up against another world-class sexy brooder, Daniel Craig, in "Skyfall," the new James Bond film. Early word is that Bardem's character, a 007 archenemy named Raoul Silva, is one of the best Bond villains in eons. And bonus points for that creepy hairstyle. Silva's mini blond pompadour -- an homage to Christopher Walken's platinum bad-guy hair in 1985's "A View to a Kill"? -- must have been created by the same misguided barber responsible for Anton Chigurh's pageboy in "No Country for Old Men."

"Breathless": This 1960 movie from director Jean-Luc Godard is to modern cinema what the Rolling Stones are to rock and JFK was to politics. It set the trend for five decades of what was to follow while retaining its status as an unmatched original. Jean-Paul Belmondo, the king of French new wave attitude, stars as a petty crook who crosses paths with a student played by American actress Jean Seberg, who, because of her character's wardrobe, ranks as one of the top style influences of the '60s. When TCM airs the movie at 8 p.m. Thursday, count how many of Seberg's looks are still relevant today: the cropped hair, the striped top, the tilted fedora, the black leggings, the nerdy eyeglasses. And does anyone know where to buy one of her New York Herald Tribune T-shirts?

Kathleen Madigan: How is it that Madigan has yet to be cast as the wisecracking a) best friend, b) office coworker or c) martini-swilling mother-in-law in any of countless sitcoms? We're thinking it's because she's so irreplaceable on the stage. She's described as the funniest woman doing stand-up now, but no gender qualifier is necessary. Along with Lewis Black, Brian Regan and Jim Gaffigan, she's one of the funniest stand-up comedians of her generation. She's appearing Thursday through Saturday at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, where she'll dispense gems like this observation on family Christmas letters: "You can tell just how close a woman is to a nervous breakdown by the details included in this letter. 'Jimmy's now swimming without a life jacket.' How many Valium did you have to take where you went, 'That's definitely making it in the letter!' "